


Liminal

by Secondprinces



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Chrobin - Freeform, M/M, coffee shop AU, eh sorta, male robin - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-05
Updated: 2017-04-05
Packaged: 2018-10-15 00:43:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10547126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Secondprinces/pseuds/Secondprinces
Summary: He’d known this town his whole life, but he’d never felt home pull so strongly as in the eyes of this stranger.  [Chrobin CoffeeShop AU]





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written commission for my friend Eli! I was listening to way too much Sleeping At Last, so I guess I can blame that?? Anyway, Chrobin is one of my fav pairings and they gave me free reign. So...

A tired little town, Ylis, California would not exist outside of the life the university brought. 

The heart of town was arranged in a series of four-way stops lined with quaint little shops.  This bled into campus, dormitories, and a business loop devoted to crumbling asphalt, fast food joints, and the odd strip club.  From there:  vineyards and winding roads. 

Chrom had lived there his whole life.

“I still don’t get why you didn’t peel out of here the second you graduated,” Gaius said.  The sucker hanging from the corner of his mouth bobbed with each word.  He had a prowl to his walk as the pair headed down Main street. 

On reflex, Chrom reached out and yanked Gaius backward by the hood.  A car whipped through the intersection.

Gaius grinned.  “Nice save, Blue.”

“Look both ways once in a while and you’ll hopefully see graduation too,” Chrom said. 

“No need when you’ve got such a good pair of peepers and nice quick arms,” Gaius said, winking.  He swiveled the sucker to the other side of his mouth with a shrug.  “You still didn’t answer my question, Blue.”

“In my defense, I thought the dye was jet black…”

“You confused cobalt blue for black,” Gaius said, raising his eyebrows.  His own hair was as ginger as his complexion.

“It was dark.”

“You were drunk, weren’t you.”  Gaius scoffed.  “Frat boy…”

Chrom shrugged.  “We live with the choices we make.”

“This was four months ago.  You’ve been re-dying it—“

Instead of replying, Chrom ushered Gaius across the street.  “Anyway…” 

Halfway across, Chrom glanced back, as if catching something in the corner of his eye.

The building there folded with the block, a curved window rounding out the edges.  Normally it was boarded up with plywood.

That plywood had been removed.  Inside he caught a flash of movement, people milling inside.  A man in an apron approached the window and set a mug down on the table. Paused.  Then looked up, catching Chrom’s eye even from the distance.

Chrom froze in the middle of the crosswalk.  Felt Gaius tug at his arm.  Heard the soccer mom lay on the horn of her SUV.

Saw amber eyes and a crop of white hair and the slow raise of eyebrows.  Quiet, almost amused acknowledgement.

Then whipped to the present as the man turned away.

Gaius managed to haul him to the other side.  “You okay there?”

Chrom nodded and coughed a little bit into his hand, glancing back just one more time.  “Yeah—just—since when did the old used bookstore reopen?”

“It didn’t?” Gaius said. 

“No, I saw people inside,” Chrom said.  “Looked like it might be a coffee shop now.”

Gaius shrugged, both brows raised, and swiveled around on one foot to continue the path they were walking, hands jammed into his pockets.  “Hm, think I woulda noticed, Blue.  C’mon.  I don’t want to be late.”

“It’s an ice cream social,” Chrom murmured, “I don’t think they’ll mind too much.”

“Do you even hear yourself right now?”

\--

The shop faded from memory until three days later, after the university football practice.  Chrom clapped one of the players on the back with a weary grin.

“Hey, let’s work on those passes tomorrow.  I’m starting to really see something there, Vaike.”

Vaike beamed.  “You got it, Cap.  I’ll show you what I’m made of.”

The team gathered for one last hearty fist bump and a hollered “Shepherds--!” before disbanding.

The coach remained in the locker room while Chrom absently tossed a few shoulder pads into a bin and tapped some lockers shut.

“How’s your sister?”

Chrom glanced up at Frederick, an older, oddly cynical man.  Lines cut deep on a face that screamed a mix of vigilance and doneness.

“Emmeryn?  Yeah—she’s doing well.  Apparently this year she has a couple of handfuls in her class.”

Frederick was buttoning up his shirt.  While he acted as coach to the football team, he also worked as a security cop for the university grounds at night.  He considered this information with a hum.  “Nothing she can’t handle, I’m sure.  She dealt with you after all.”

Chrom’s laugh was less than enthusiastic.  “Hm.”

Frederick plunked his guard’s hat on his own mess of hair with a sigh, scowling into a mirror.  He glanced back at Chrom.  “You really should put some thought into what you’re going to do now that you’ve graduated.  Sticking around and helping is well and good, but eventually you’re going to need to move on.”  He patted Chrom awkwardly on the shoulder.  “Let me know if you want to talk about it.”  He left.

Chrom’s sigh left him feeling oddly hollow.  He checked his phone to find that his friends were barhopping in the one little shady street in town, but he felt too quiet.  Counterbalanced with this was a strange need to be around people.

He remembered the coffee shop.

The bell chimed softly as he shouldered through the door.  The bookshelves had been replaced with wooden tables and padded chairs.  Where the register had been was a counter stocked with packaged coffee beans, white mugs, and an assortment of snacks.  The floor creaked as Chrom wandered in.

When had they been working on this?  Chrom was downtown every day; he would have noticed such intense renovation.

The shop was empty.  Chrom glanced backward at the window seat that overlooked the tired sidewalk.  Not much of a view, he thought.  The sun had just begun to set, blotted out by an old water tower in the distance.

“One second—“

He turned at the pad of footsteps.

The man from before emerged from the back, tying his apron as he walked.  “Bit late to wander in.  Sure you can handle caffeine at this hour?”  There was a teasing lilt to his voice, though his face remained composed.  He studied Chrom with casual interest.

Chrom blinked and glanced down at his watch.  “This hour?”  It was only seven-thirty.  He laughed quietly, and decided to say nothing of it, instead approaching the counter.  “I guess I should go de-caf then, hm?”  He stared up at the menu.  “Uh…shoot.  What would you suggest.”

“Three shots of whiskey.”

“Pardon?—“

The barista smirked at his own joke and flipped a machine on.  “You look like you like hot chocolate.  That’s what I’m going to make for you.”  He paused, cup in hand.  “Name?”

Chrom glanced around at the empty shop.  “There’s no one else here—“

“Maybe I just want to know your name.”

“Oh, um, it’s Chrom.”

“Chrom?  Is that foreign,” the man said.  He scrawled it down on the cup.  Or some variation of it. 

“My mom was an interesting person,” Chrom said.  He leaned forward and squinted at the barista’s nametag.  “Chad…?”

The barista blinked and glanced down.  “Oh.  I grabbed the wrong apron.  It’s Robin.  My name is Robin.”

Chrom chuckled.  “Would Chad be offended if I said I was relieved?”

Robin shrugged.  “I’ll ask him later, just for you.”  He set to making Chrom’s hot chocolate while Chrom sprawled himself into a chair at a table nearby. 

He set it down in front of him.

“Kinda strange this place isn’t a little more active,” Chrom said, glancing up at him.  The sun was just a glow on the horizon now.  “We haven’t had a proper coffee shop in this godforsaken town in ages.”

Robin cocked his head.  Furrowed his brow.  Blinked.  Then glanced out the window.  “I’m sorry, what?”

“This place.  It’s deserted and it shouldn’t be.”

“Not everyone is a night owl, I guess,” Robin said.  His brow did not smooth, but he untied his apron, draped it over the opposite chair, and took a seat.  His eyes darted to Chrom’s watch, ticking on the wrist that rested on the table, hand nursing the cup of cocoa.  He blinked again and checked his own watch.

Chrom shifted a little in his seat.  “You…alright there?”

“It’s just been a long day,” Robin said.  “It’s alright that I sit with you, I hope.  I’m technically off now that it’s—my shift is over.”

Chrom’s sip left behind a foam mustache.  “Wait, are you getting ready to close?  I can totally get out of your hair—“

“I’m in no hurry to get home,” Robin said.  “So sit.  Drink.  You look like you need time to soak in the quiet anyway.”

Chrom turned the cup around in his hands.  “Yeah, how could you tell?”

“Lucky guess,” Robin said, with a knowing expression.  He stared out the window a moment, face reverting to something solemn as he traced the grain of the table with one finger.  “I get that way too, sometimes.  But you seem troubled.”

“Oh, haha…”  Chrom’s laugh was anything but enthusiastic.  He took a sip of his hot chocolate and wiped at his mouth with his sleeve.  “Um, are you from around here?  It’s kind of a small town, so I figure I would have noticed you before.”

“Is that the equivalent of ‘you come here often’?”

“Huh?”  Chrom’s cheeks tinged pink and he shook his head, a little flustered.  “I’m not—I wasn’t trying to—“

Robin’s laugh was gentle.  “I’m teasing.  Tell me about you instead.”

Chrom rubbed at the back of his neck with another weak chuckle, then gulped down the rest of his drink.  “Oh, I mean, I graduated from here this past winter.  Kinda just sticking around for a bit until I figure out what I want to do.”

“Hm,” Robin said.  “What did you major in?”

“Communications,” Chrom said, shrugging.  “With a side in business.  But I guess my main focus was ball.”

“Ball?”

Chrom tilted his head.  “Yeah, football.  The only kind of ball this town pays attention to anyway.  Small schools are funny like that.  Coach really thought I had a future.”

“Had?”

Chrom clapped a hand to his left shoulder.  “Yeah.  That ship sailed, though.  Injury knocked me out of the running for any future there.  I’m pretty much healed up, but any strain just brings back the pain, so.”  Another weak chuckle.  “Can’t help but feel like I’ve let everyone down.  Kinda sucks to feel so washed up.  I don’t know what else to do, so I’ve been stuck here.”

“Guess you just need a new battleplan, then,” Robin said, standing up to take the empty cup to the trash. 

Chrom chewed the inside of his cheek.  “Guess so.”  Slowly, he pushed himself to his feet.  “I’ll let you close up.  I’m sorry I kept you—“

Robin’s eyes met his.  “I’m not all that worried about it.”

“What, um, what nights do you work, usually?”

“Every night,” Robin said.  He stifled a yawn into his arm.  Chrom finally noticed the dark circles cutting beneath his eyes.  “Sometimes I take Sundays off, though.”

“Right,” Chrom said.  “I’ll try to come a little earlier next time, then.”

\--

Chrom became a regular.  On the days that he came in at five or earlier, the shop was packed, and Robin and—presumably—Chad were run ragged between the myriad of customers.

Chrom usually sat in the same table he’d occupied his first visit, if it was open.  He didn’t mind that Robin couldn’t always spare a moment to chat.  There was something comforting in the bustle of people, the murmur of conversation, and the gurgle of coffee.  The world didn’t seem so unpredictable in the cozy confines of that hectic little shop.

By his third visit, Robin could spell his name correctly.

By his tenth, he had a special smile reserved for him.

By his twelfth, Robin left a lingering touch on his bicep when he delivered his order.

By his twentieth, Robin complained about customers to him after closing.  Sometimes he even kissed Chrom’s cheek goodbye--and ushered him out before he could stammer a response.

But it took Chrom’s twenty-fifth visit to realize he’d never seen any of these people before.

He stared as if by fresh eyes.  Several men in suits chatted over coffee by the window, Rolexes glinting in the sun.  Chrom stared at the water dripping from their umbrellas, propped by the door.  Glanced at the window where the sun blazed as hot as it had all day.

His brow furrowed.  There had to be an explanation he just wasn’t considering.  This town got up to some weird shit.

“Earth to Chrom, ground control with coffee—“

Chrom jumped.  Robin stood with his coffee order, and took a moment to wipe the sweat beading at his brow with his free arm.

“Oh—right—sorry—“  Chrom dug the heels of his hands into his eyes then accepted the cup.  He paused, staring at it.  “Did you…is that a dick.”  He gestured to the sharpie drawing beneath his name, cheeks flushing.

Robin snorted.  “No, it’s a sword.”

“Oh.  Right.  Of course.”  Chrom squinted at it.  “A sword.  Silly me.”

Robin hummed.  “Drawing isn’t my strong suit.”

Chrom opened his mouth to comment on that, but shut it.  He studied the ‘sword’ a moment longer.  “Why a sword, though.”

“I had a dream the other night that you had a pretty cool sword,” Robin said, matter-of-factly.  “I tried to recreate it.”  He plopped himself down into the chair opposite as usual.  “I’m on my break now.”

Chrom laughed in spite of himself.  “A pretty cool sword, huh?”

“In my dream there was a long war.  Two wars, I guess.  We pressed on despite overwhelming odds, you the leader, me the master tactician by your side.  I might have been watching Return of the King that night as I was falling asleep.”

“I’ll take it as a compliment, I think,” Chrom said.  He sipped at his coffee, paused, then glanced up at Robin with a smile.  His worries seemed to melt away when their eyes met.  He’d known this town his whole life, but he’d never felt home pull so strongly as in the eyes of this stranger.

“Luckily you seem to have a penchant for wearing two sleeves in the real world,” Robin said, laughing at his own private joke.

Chrom tilted his head.  “What.”

“Nothing!” Robin said.  He smiled and Chrom’s heart fluttered.  The smile faded into something solemn again, as Robin’s fingertips grazed Chrom’s hand atop the table.  “Whatever’s holding you back, you’re stronger than it.  None of us can stand still.”

He rose.

But Chrom’s fingers wrapped around his hand and tugged him back down.

“My break is almost over,” Robin said, though he didn’t pull away.

The crowd was dwindling anyway.  Chad rolled his eyes from across the room and made a gesture like ‘take your time’ as he grabbed a fresh stack of coffee cups to place on the counter.

“You say all these cryptic things to me,” Chrom said.  He did not look away.  Could not.  “Like you’ve known me a lot longer than I’ve known you—and yet, I don’t know the first thing about you.” 

Chrom’s gaze flickered down to Robin’s hand, and he turned it over, palm upward.  He noticed blotches along the slender wrist, like someone else had grabbed it much less gently than he had.  His eyes tracked up to the bruises that disappeared into his sleeve, then to the dark circles under Robin’s eyes.

Robin watched him study his arm and sighed, gently taking his hand back.

“Kindred spirits will always find each other,” Robin said.  He furrowed his brow.  “That was the second cheesiest thing I’ve heard today, and from my own mouth…hm.”

“Don’t deflect, Robin.  Please.”

Robin hummed.  He folded his hands in his lap, under the table.  “My father wishes to keep me a prisoner in his own home.  Work is my only solace, but a large portion of my money goes toward his medical bills.  Regardless, he’s abusive and controlling.”  His tone is flat, as if he’s long since detached himself from his reality.

“And you can’t leave that place--?”

Robin shook his head.  “Not just yet.  Not until I have enough saved up to get myself a running start.”  His smile was wry.  “I read all I can and I know I’m smart.  I want to get a degree in law or social work and use that leg up to make a difference.  But to do that, I need a stable living situation and a masterplan.  World runs on green, so this is step one.  Anything he doesn’t snatch away, I save.”

Chrom’s expression softened into something pained.  “I’m…I’m so sorry, Robin.  I had no idea…”

“Your friendship and support I’ll accept, but your pity never,” Robin said.  He rose.  “As I said, none of us can stand still.  I’m clawing my way out.”

“Right,” Chrom murmured.  He rose too, unsure of what to say.  Any words he could think of sounded cheap. 

Robin patted his arm.  “Swing by later around closing, okay.”  This time he pressed a lingering kiss to Chrom’s lips before disappearing into the back.

\--

Gaius found Chrom sitting in the university library, leafing through newspapers with one hand while the other propped his face up.

“Classified ads?  Bit 1980’s if you ask me, Blue.”  He pulled a seat, leaned back, and propped his feet up on the table.  As usual, a sucker bobbed in his mouth.  “Whatcha looking for?  Some free-range chickens?  A new dishwasher?”

Chrom sighed and folded the newspaper.  Incorrectly.  It was a wad now.

He groaned his frustration. 

“No, just looking for my plan B, I guess.”

“Spitshine finally manage to light a fire under you?”

“…Who?”

“Frederick?  Your coach?”

Chrom shook his head.  “No, just figured it was time to start figuring things out.  I can’t just sit stagnant my whole life, you know.”

Gaius clapped him on the back.  “Proud of you, Blue.  But try Craigslist or something.  A lot easier.”  He patted his shoulder twice more for good measure then leaned back again.  “If you’re _really_ feeling confident, with your fancy college degree and all, I hear Indeed or Monster is useful too.”

“You’re probably right…” Chrom said.  “Not much around here, though.”

“You might want to expand your search, Blue,” Gaius said.  “It’s a big state.  Big country.”

“That’s the scary part,” Chrom said.

“No risk, no reward.”  Gaius closed his eyes and yawned.  “Oh, by the way, that coffee shop you keep going on and on about.  You sure it’s on the corner of West and Main?”

“Yeah, I’ve been going there every day for the past month.  I’d know.”

Gaius let his chair thunk back down into the carpet.  He examined Chrom closely.  “No?  I looked for it.  Didn’t find it.”

“Were you drunk?”

“Irrelevant.”

Chrom laughed.  “Well it’s that old bookstore.  The one that was boarded up forever.  You should remember, you spraypainted a big butt onto it your freshman year.”

“Yup, I know the one.  But I think you’ve lost your beans.”

“I Definitely Have Not,” Chrom said.  His brow furrowed.  “If I can find a good enough job, there’s someone there that I want to whisk away with me.  That’s the real fire lit under my ass.  Plus he says a lot of good things to say that I needed to hear.”

Gaius whistled long and low—just loud enough that a nearby study group shot seething glares his way.  Chrom swatted him with the newspaper wad.

\--

Chrom returned around 7:45pm, breathless because he’d taken the last few blocks at a jog. 

The bell jingled as he pushed his way through.

Robin glanced up from the counter.  The chairs were already stacked up on the tables, customers gone, trash taken out. 

“Hope I didn’t keep you waiting,” Chrom said.

Robin shook his head.  “Just long enough.”  He hummed as he folded up his apron.

Chrom smiled his relief.  “Okay, good—“  He glanced around, noting the quiet as the last dredges of sunlight soaked through the window.  “I was touching up my resume and getting it sent out.”

Robin nodded.  “Good.”  He licked his lips, as if trying to organize the words in his head before they reached his mouth.  “I didn’t want to say anything before, but tonight is the night that I take my strategic leap of faith.”

Chrom fidgeted with his hands but kept his eyes on Robin.  “To get away from your family situation--?”

“All the pieces are put together.  I can finally afford to keep afloat while I get my fresh start.  From there, I can proceed.”  To emphasize his point, he patted his backpack.  All he was bringing with him, Chrom assumed.

Chrom felt a strange knot in his throat that settled into the pit of his stomach.  “Where.  Where are you going?”  His voice felt tight.

Robin took a deep breath.  “I’m not sure yet.  Somewhere nice…somewhere I can get to by a series of buses.  I…won’t know what home is until I see it, I’d think.”  He met Chrom’s eyes.

“Ah,” Chrom said.  His knees felt weak.  “I’m happy for you.  Is there some way that.  We can keep in touch?  I know you don’t have an address, but a phone number?”

“I don’t own a phone,” Robin said.  “I’ll look into purchasing one as soon as I can, but I’m keeping everything to necessities for now.”

“R-right,” Chrom said.  He seized a cup with a shaking hand and scrawled down his name and number.  “In that case—take this. Call me when you can—if you want to.  At the very least to let me know that you’ve made it wherever safely.  Alright?”

Robin took it and set it down on the table beside him.  He slowly took Chrom’s hand.  Leaned forward.  Pressed a gentle kiss to the corner of his mouth.  He lingered there.  “Thank you.”

Chrom snatched him up into a tight hug, his face buried into the top of Robin’s shoulder.  “Stay safe out there, yeah?  You need—you need me to walk you anywhere?”

Shaking his head, Robin pulled free.  His eyes were a little too bright, but the corner of his mouth quirked into a soft smile.  “I see you haven’t really caught on that it should have been impossible for our paths to cross.”  He gave Chrom’s hand one last squeeze as he let it go, and turned to grab the coffee cup.

“What--?”

“But I’m glad that they did.  See you around.  I hope.”  And he walked out of the shop.

The bells shuddered as the door swung shut.

“Wait—“

Chrom lunged after him, but spilled into an empty sidewalk.  He jerked his head in either direction, but saw little else than a few cars passing by and no sign of anyone at all. 

“Robin--?”

Blinking rapidly, Chrom staggered a few steps forward.

When he turned back to the shop, his hand met nothing where he expected the handle to be.

The coffeeshop was as derelict as he remembered it from last year, just a husk of a building boarded up with slats of rotting wood.  The old, gutted bookstore.

The pit in Chrom’s stomach seized tight, and he grasped it, one hand weakly clawing at some of the boards.  They did not budge.

“I don’t understand…”

His eyes burned with tears that could not soothe the odd sense of loss welling inside of him.

Had this all been in his head?

He stayed here, back against the blocked off door until the sun slowly creeped its way back onto the horizon.

The shop never returned.

\--

Four months was enough time for Gaius to graduate and Emmeryn to throw him a party like he was one of her own siblings.  They held it in their backyard on one of the picnic tables their dad had built before his passing.  The grill smoked around a batch of burgers.  Drinks flowed freely.

Chrom and Lissa sat back as Frederick clapped a hand to Gaius’s shoulder and gave him a long speech about freedom and responsibility. 

Chrom chuckled to himself.  He’d just received a final call following up on an interview for a company in Delaware.  He’d been offered a job.

So far, only his little sister Lissa knew.

She punched him nice and hard in the shoulder, but grinned at him.  “You’re just thriving off this news, aren’t you.  I’d be bursting at the seams if it was me.”  She slurped down her milkshake.

“For once I’m playing it cool.  I don’t want to steal the spotlight from Gaius just yet, anyway.  Plus it’s so far away.  I’m still getting used to the idea.”

“What, you scared?”

Chrom shook his head.  “Nowhere to move but forward.”  He paused, humming as he picked at his burger.  “Though, it is a far-cry from everything I’ve ever known.  But I know I’ll be fine.”

“Course you will,” Lissa said.  She swiveled in her chair as Emmeryn came back around, this time with cupcakes.  “Better watch Frederick.  He’s looking a little parched.”  She swiped one with a wink.

Chrom rolled his eyes.

He did not notice the phone buzzing in his pocket until it stopped.  Only then did he pull it out.

Unknown Caller.

That’s what he got for ordering those Japanese snack kits off ebay and supplying his number.  Weird phone calls.  Weirder texts.

He set his phone face down on the table to secure his own cupcake.

The phone started dancing in place once again.

Same caller.

Chrom scooped it up with a sigh.

“Be back in a few, alright—might have to read War and Peace to a telemarketer for a little bit.”  He plucked it from the bookshelf as he ducked back inside.

“Hello?”

A pause.

A deep breath.

“Hello.”

“May I…ask who’s calling?”

“Is this Chrom?”

“…Yes?”  A prickle of _something_ slinked down Chrom’s back.  The hand holding his phone trembled.

“My name is Robin.  I was hoping you were real.  I used to work at a little bookshop in a town in Vermont.  I’m safe now.”


End file.
